The graying of the collector-car hobby becomes an increasing concern with each passing day, particularly as the question of what to do about it remains largely unanswered. Yet a new lecture series, Bring Back Shop Class, aims to tackle that question by inviting New York Times bestseller Matthew Crawford to Hershey this year.

Initiated earlier this year by Collectors Foundation, a non-profit committed to supporting the collector-car and boat hobbies, Bring Back Shop Class aims to do exactly that, to “support and inspire the continuation and revival of shop classes throughout our education system for future generations.” Michael Schneider, president of MacPherson College, kicked off the series earlier this year in Scottsdale, and it’s only appropriate that Crawford, the author of the 2009 book Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work, continue it.

In his book Crawford, a motorcycle mechanic with a Ph.D. in political philosophy, argues that the dismantling of shop classes during the 1990s and 2000s and the push for high-school students to go on to college and then into the knowledge economy has actually in many ways made Americans less self-reliant and more anxious about their prospects in the world. As he wrote in “The Case for Working with Your Hands,” his essay adapted from the book for the New York Times:

The imperative of the last 20 years to round up every warm body and send it to college, then to the cubicle, was tied to a vision of the future in which we somehow take leave of material reality and glide about in a pure information economy. This has not come to pass… Somebody has to actually do things: fix our cars, unclog our toilets, build our houses.

One shop teacher suggested to me that “in schools, we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement. Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged.”

Crawford’s Hershey presentation, titled “The Case for Actually Being Able to Do Stuff,” will take place at 2 p.m. Friday, October 12, at the AACA tent on Hockersville Road next to the show field. Admission is free. For more information on the Bring Back Shop Class series, visit CollectorsFoundation.org.

51 Responses to “Bring Back Shop Class series comes to Hershey”

The graying of the collector car hobby will continue as artifically high prices remain on collector cars. Also young people have been exposed to 90′s and later transportation “pods” as opposed to real classic vehicles and as such have no appreciation for our hobby.

I remember reading one of Floyd Clymer’s old histories, where he said almost the same thing, except he put the date when cars stopped being interesting as 1925. What’s interesting is how as the years went on, date when they stopped making “real cars” and started making mass produced junk has steadily crept upwards. The British Vintage Car Club was based on the assumption that cars got worse after 1930. Then people decided that t930′s produced some classics, but that nobody would want those cheap, gaudy cars from the 1950′s. Then it was decided those were good, but that smog and safety regs after 1970 had destroyed cars forever. Somehow the magic date when it all went wrong always manages to be almost exactly 20 years from the present.
The fact is, the car industry has been about “transportation pods” since the Model T. The primary goal has been to transport people and their possessions with a minimum of drama, and this is a good thing. Interesting and exciting cars got built, and they still continue to be built and appreciated, and this is a good thing too. Even the less exciting cars acquire a certain mystique as artifacts of their age as time goes on, and in all likelihood, this will continue. Expect the date when they stopped making interesting cars to continue ratcheting upwards.

I don’t know if the problem is exactly this. I think the problem is not lack of interest, but lack of consideration. I know a lot of non-greys who are into cars, including myself, and have seen a lot at car shows. I think the problem you are describing is that we are not necessarily visible. However, we can be found at a lot of small town semi-planned car shows, but we are not typically found at club events.

I believe we’re non-visible because we seem to like to drive our cars whereas the baby-boomers want to organize things and are less into the driving part. The problem I’ve experienced is two fold, and I doubt I’m alone:

1. Club sponsored things seem occur during the week…when some of us actually have to work or take leave to attend them. My impression of the general mentality in clubs (I’ve belonged to GTO, MG, Triumph and more) was that they assume members are free during the working week because they are. Thus things are scheduled which we cannot attend, or cannot attend without taking vacation time.

Many large car shows likewise seem to be scheduled entirely from Monday-Friday with no weekend days. Examples: NAMGAR’s MG shows, GTOAA, etc….

1A. I think this might be the problem to go after because if people in Gen X rarely have a chance to take our kids to car shows because [gasp] we were working, then the hobby might decline a lot more since our kids will be even less connected.

2. Another big problem I’ve experienced, as one of the non-greys in the car hobby, was the over bureaucratic-ness of most car clubs. The mentality seems to be there with the only exception occurring during the few years I lived out west, where the culture seemed more laid back. This was one reason why I completely quit attending meetings (although I still technically belong to a few clubs).

You must remember that people who work have to balance time. After spending 40+ hours a week in a bureaucracy (which I function very well in), the last thing I want to do in my free time really is more bureaucracy. Examples I seen were spending hours at a January meeting (in the Midwest) discussing how we should follow Roberts Rules of Order [I throw my hands up at the stupidity of doing this in a social setting], or arguing over permission to buy a $1.50 get well card from club funds [come on, just do it and pass it around].

It is a sad state when mechanical engineering students have to be taught how to take things apart or that remedial math and english classes are overflowing in tech schools. You have to be able to think to fix cars. I have heard Mathew speak and his message is clear. Fixing things is honorable work that we are neglecting in this country. Look at all the job openings for people with skills that rely on their hands as well as their head. As the population ages the skills go with them and we no longer can do for ourselves. It is a problem across many industries. It also might be the path to reviving the nation if we are willing to address it before the skills are gone.

A lot of things have happened in the past 20 years. The push for acedemic achievement has definitely made a lot of McDonald’s employees with degrees. Electronic marvels have also steered kids away from getting their hands dirty. Shop classes teach basic hand skills and should be run from at least 7th grade on. Taking kids to car shows should also be in the mix because it exposes them to old cars. And yes, Trevor, some of those meetings can get bureaucratic. We sure toned our local meetings down to where we have some fun and attendance has risen significantly.

The shop classes may be just a continuation of what should take place earlier in life for the future classic automobile lover, building models. I don’t see kids building models now and the snap fit models for the beginners seem to be cheating them of the work ethic by letting the model builder feel too good about their efforts and then move on to something else, perhaps video games. As far as artificial prices, I think that cars with provinance reflect much of the higher prices, but also look at the material and labor costs of today compared to years ago and today’s special interest cars have to reflect these increases in their respective prices. High schools too should prep kids for life in the trades and thus re-instate the shop classes to encourage craftsmanship and thus preserve a good work ethic. It would also be nice to see concurrent work programs for all high schoool students to get a taste of working at many types of jobs before deciding on higher education’s direction. The cost of auto ownership including maintinance and insurance is making many driver’s aged kids not consider having a license and thus not fostering any further interst in automobiles, modern or classic. The work programs, if iniciated, would in some cases, make car ownership more accessable and necessary to get to work as well as inspire some to learn about the car they own in order to afford the maintinance by attempting to do it themselves. This could also bring about the special interest in the modern car’s electronic needs in the aftermarket that as yet haven’t been addressed. Today’s young are more adept at computers and could more easily create aftermarket applications for the many systems computer controlled in today’s cars, which if not done will make cars of today throw aways at the end of their life cycles as there won’t be any circute boards and sensors in the after market to keep them on the road. What a great subject and so complex with far reaching effects. Thanks for hitting my knee this morning.

This really hits home for me. I have worked in a high tech environment for almost 20 years but I get more satisfaction working on my 1950 Olds Rocket 88 or my sons quarter midget race car. There is nothing better than figuring out why something won’t work and fixing it yourself.

Pete, you are right on. I “built” my first car in 1956 …. Nowadays the younger help that come to my restoration shop, for the most part have no clue as to how things work, and have not even basic automotive knowledge…. except “code” and replace” … …….. At 70, there is no hope for me to sell my shop , as very few younger people have the various skills necessary, and very few really wants to learn techniques, for older restorations

Dave, if you ever have the chance, check out McPherson (KS) College’s Auto Restoration Program. They graduate a number of students every year that not only would be able to work in your shop, but have the technical and business skills to buy your shop from you. I’m a member of their Summer Institute program, and until you see the program, you won’t believe what they are doing there. This is the program that Jay Leno sponsors a scholarship, and the Mercedes factory museum offers internships to – really, check it out.

The another issue is that the support services to this hobby are also aging. During a recent nut-and-bolt rebuild, I noticed that the chromer, machinist, painter, and leather businesses are all at or close to retirement. None of these businesses had young people to take over and all indicated that they were closing down when going into retirement.

1. Having a few decades to think it over on that journey from blonde to grey, I’ve come to the conclusion that it was wrong from the get-go to relegate shop classes to those destined to be manual/blue-collar and steer the college prep crowd away from it. I’ve met a few engineers who could have benefited both from the hands-on learning and camaraderie with those future blue-collars that shop class uniquely offers. Perhaps the occasional over-educated moron would have more of a sense of design and less subsequent problems with the maintenance guys had he had the opportunity to get familiar with a wrench and a torch while in high school.

2. Currently the “Industry” [HVAC, Plumbing, Refrigeration, etc.] is crying for good, trainable young men who know how to use a torch and read instruments; working for the right company, they can often make a pile more money than their cubicle counterparts while knowing the beauty of a rooftop view on a sunny day. I’ve come to the conclusion over the years that manual labor by a real tradesman [of ANY trade] is a great and noble thing, and we are neglecting the training of these people to our peril.

3. Regarding car clubs: aging and declining membership is a problem for all associations across the board, and as they age, Parkinson’s law takes over and you get this stupid bureaucratic quibbling.
The only thing you can do is either bitch and raise hell about it until they wake up, or move on to a more progressive organization. Good Luck.

OH SO TRUE…I’ve said it for years. This may be harsh, but it seems like there are two kinds of people: Those that go around breaking and ruining things and those that go around fixing and cleaning up after them. WE NEED MORE OF THE LATTER ! Maybe what we need is an American Idol “Plumbers and Mechanics Edition” I think we’ve got enough young soulful singers.

Mr. Crawford’s initiative is an excellent one and something I support 100%. Far too few younger people (and adults) have the faintest inkling of how to fix anything mechanical, or how the things around them work.

However I would bet the “graying” of the hobby has more to do with another phenomenon, namely, the decreasing servicability of cars in general. Many electronic components of 1980s and later cars were designed to be discarded when worn out and replaced by new factory parts. Rebuilding these components may be impossible. Often, even diagnosing the problem is beyond the skills of the ordinary shade tree mechanic. The level of electronic complexity in cars has grown exponentially through the 1990s and 2000s until today. An entire generation has grown up believing cars must be taken to the dealer or a sophisticated repair shop to be fixed.

Many car hobbyists seek out cars from their youth to preserve and restore when their kids are out of college and they have some free time and disposable income. When today’s kids reach that age, will cars of the 2010s be something they’ll want to or be able to tinker with? I doubt it.

I’ll confess that my current vehicle, an ’88 Lincoln TC, is definitely not getting the attention it deserves on account of the byzantine nature of its engineering. That is, compared to my previous cars; ’69 Chevy, ’67 Chrysler, ’76 Buick.

I can’t just pop the hood, sit on the fenders, reach down and swap the spark plugs on this thing – and yet an old Panther-platform design like that is still far simpler than what they make (and conceal beneath a plethora of plastic panels) now.

You will find many undamaged luxury cars in boneyards with nothing wrong with them other than a inoperative automatic transmission that has but a handful of manufacturer supplied spare parts available for their repair. As a former BMW parts manager, I can tell you the only way to fix that transmission is to buy a remanufactured unit that is more costly than the value of the vehicles. Even if you had the expertise to repair them, few parts are available to make the repair. This trend will only expand to eventually make it impossible to work on your own car.

My Dad, AF Burnett, Taught Shop Classes for over forty years. Many, many students in Central Indiana benefited. Four years of High School Shop Classes with my Dad as The Teacher makes me absolutely fearless when it comes to things mechanical. Using tools and “doing stuff” is always, always very enjoyable for me…Yeah I went to college too…….

When growing up ( I was born in 1933) virtually everything could be easily fixed; irons, toasters, washing machines, radios, cars, etc. Most people had some knowledge to handle routine problem situations. If the radio went out, you took the tubes out, took them to a drug store to test the tubes yourself and bought replacements right there. Same with cars. Spark plugs were easy to remove, clean and adjust the gap. Coils and condensers, no problem. I had a 1965 MGB that required at least semi-annual spark plug cleaning and adjustment. Valves need adjustment, timing had to be checked, the two SU carburetors dashpots needed to be topped off with oil and also had to be synchronized. It is difficult today for an individual to repair anything. The younger generation didn’t have the opportunity to see various things being repaired by their parents as they grew up, so have a totally different attitude that us older folks.

Shopclass as Soulcraft is a wonderful, engaging and well-written book. We are pushing almost all of our kids into college when many are not suited for it (intellectually or tempramentally) or the desktop driven careers that supposedly exist following graduation. There is no shame for many high schoolers and grads to take a different track. I think Germany can teach America here — with their excellent apprentice systems that provide and train furture workers will valuable skills. Germany is a hugge net exporter despite its higher lanor costs due to its highly skilled work force.

High school shop class in the 60′s.
I was fascinated by the fancy metal lathe that sat against the wall unused. With its chrome handwheels and curvy adornments, I gazed longingly.
Seems the shop teacher only knew how to work with wood and only paid attention to those who wanted the same.
Ended up in manufacturing specializing in lathes, manual and CNC.
WE do have a very nice vocational school around here.
Just the same “Bring Back High School Shop”

The real reason shop classes were eliminated in the 90′s was a financial one. Schools get paid by the student and the more students per teacher the better. Hence computer classes where 60 + students can be covered by one teacher vs shop classed where the ratio was 15-20 per teacher. Now we find ourselves in the dilemma where we have no skilled workers and have to bring them in from outside. I strongly recommend to young people getting a college education to also learn a trade for in today’s advancing world, you will find you will be obsolete in you field before you are 45 and will have the trade to fall back on. Better yet get your education at MacPherson college and you will be set for life. Remember being skilled in a nostalgic field never requires retraining!
Fred Roth Americansportscars.com

Reminds me of teaching English in 1962 with a 1948 text. When Sputnik launched in 1957, all the educational pundits decreed that federal funds should be poured into science and math. It followed that everyone should and could be rocket scientists. With the mostly unfortunate meddling in education by the “government” we killed the trades and crafts as well as the apprentice systems which built the world, so now we are seeking plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc. Maybe if some influential person would cry out about reviving the honor of honest “hands on” labor, things would improve. My only regret, having lived what I consider a “marvelous” world, is that my chances of seeing a turn-around are slim to none.

Ok it looks like I have got to be the one to say it. One of the big reasons shop class and the car hobby along with it are going downhill and why we need to import people to do our manual labor is the feminization of our culture. Many boys are being raised by single moms who put them on Ritalin to try to medicate the boy out of them. The boys then attend a female dominated school system where practical knowledge takes a back seat to social engineering. Finally, all kids are pushed toward college where they are required to take women’s studies while majoring in soft subjects. Anyone who decides not to go to college is looked down upon. Our movies and TV shows are dominated by “super chicks” who can knock out a man with one punch. They even remade Snow White into a ninja warrior. Boys have no strong role models, strong men are derided as Neanderthals who are a threat to be eliminated.

Perhaps, but as someone who went to high school in the 90s, he does have a point. I remember quite a few male classmates who didn’t have a clue how to do things like put air in a car tire, and really didn’t want to know either. They had to have their fathers do such things for them. Even before Columbine any kind of fighting, even a clear-cut case of self-defense, got you suspended so the administration could cover their own rear-ends.

And it’s only gotten worse since then. Now they won’t even let little kids bring in GI Joes (violent, ideologically incorrect role-models), or older ones play dodgeball (too rough, and someone might get their feelings hurt). Trophies and congratulations are now handed out just for “participation”. The schools are doing their best to breed a generation with a narcissist’s facade of confidence and little-to-no concept of reality; will, drive, individual ambition, dedication, hard work, or struggle.

It’s no wonder we have so many people with degrees in ephemeral majors, and a scarcity of practical skills or craftsmanship. I hope there is, as is often the case with extreme and confining trends, a generational backlash that sets things moving in the other direction.

Looking over this excellent discourse before retiring for the night, your comment caught my eye.

Marve, I think you’re looking at a peripheral effect rather than a main cause. Having been involved on the “trades” for some years now, I’ve seen several women who were “all about it” [in Navy parlance] when it came to their dedication to their particular skill or trade. Often they plied a trade that they would have been ridiculed out of in a previous era, and I have no reason to think that it’s any different among auto hobbyists.
Maybe the “girls” will be our salvation instead of our bane, if you’re broad[no pun intended, really]-minded enough to get them involved.

After 37 years of teaching Industrial Technology, i.e. shop, I retired and now teach auto mechanics part time in a community college.

I believe the rise of Technology also contributed greatly to the demise of shop classes. School districts anxious to demonstrate to the public their vision for the future, quickly bought into Technology Ed,.i.e. computers, as a modernized version of Industrial Technology and often school board members didn’t even know there was a difference.

I am currently witnessing first hand the “new generation” of students raised under this vision. We must teach what amounts to remedial shop classes to incoming freshman auto tech. students. Many can’t identify basic hand tools, let alone know their use. A much more serious concern, in my opinion, is the fact that once many of these students actually get involved in hands on activities, they discover that this is NOT something they want to do in life.

One of the original goals of Industrial Arts instruction was to help students narrow down a career choice. This is now missing from their educational experience and we are paying the price with a very high secondary AND post secondary drop out rate.

We live and work in a man-made world. It is created through the Construction and Manufacturing Industries. It all has to be planned, organized, controlled, built and maintained by people. Study of those systems in our schools should be just as important as study of biology, math, science, or history.

I once had a student in my metal shop class, while learning to operate a metal lathe and having to convert fractional dimensions to decimal equivalents say, “Now I know why they had us learn to do this in math class!”

Maybe that should be a clue as to how an integrated system of schooling should be organized. We tend to separate subject matter when teaching in schools. The reality is it is all integrated in our modern man-made world.

Here in Alberta there is a critical shortage of skilled people in almost every trade. Both the provincial and the national governments have recognized the problem and are heavily involved in helping industry to attract qualified people from other countries. The owner of the garage where we take all our vehicles (they work on collector cars too) says he can’t expand because it’s too difficult to get/keep mechanics and apprentices. The owner of one of our city’s premier restoration shops thinks he will have to close down because his staff is all nearing retirement and no one younger is coming aboard. And yes the schools have thrown out their emphasis on shop subjects in order to”modernize” the curriculum. If we continue to go down this path the results will be catastrophic.

The Collectors Foundation is actually doing something about the problem and I am really happy to see their efforts!

To effect (or is it affect?) change on a larger scale, our country might do well to elect officials who both support funding education and the retention of factory jobs. Outsourcing can be undone: Ford is doing it. Education can be funded, as Paul said above, look at Germany.

Shop Class acted like a mirror for the country’s industrial prowess: when the US was the envy of the world, a person could support a family with a factory job. Shop class was seen as a method of prep for those kids who learned with their hands like others learned from books. Once the jobs left, schools dropped this ‘prep.’

The current appreciation of shop class as more than just prep for factory work is fantastic! but in order for funding to return on a large scale – funding that touches every student in the country – we have to see factory jobs return to this country. Then school systems will again view manual trades as viable careers and shop class as practical and necessary.

Apologies if this thought was covered in the book, I tried to read it but found it too much of a doctoral dissertation to finish.

Serviceability of cars is something that affects all of us. Recently, my cousin, who is on his 3rd Toyota Prius, told me that replacing a headlight on that car cost him $110 at the dealership. If engineers had some hands-on training with a wrench, that likely wouldn’t happen.

Read the book a few years back, and since have bought over 50 copies to give to others. It has also inspired me to teach my now 15 year old daughter to weld, change oil, do brakes, tear down motors and we are now scratch building a hot rod. I bought her a tool box, a welding helmet and jacket and every holiday put a new tool in the box. There is something to be said for knowing how things work, how metal forms and how to put things together. There is a difference between driving a car, and driving a car when you know all of the parts between your hands and the road – and it also helps to understand what is wrong. While there are many young car enthusiasts, there are far fewer people who truly understand how a car works, how to fix one without an ODB2 code reader or how to build old school custom parts – this is what I learned in shop class, and what is lacking from today’s schools. And regardless where she ends up, my daughter will going into life knowing how to do stuff.

It’s not just cars. I know many guys who can’t install a light fixture, God-forbid a ceiling fan, make shelving, install a dishwasher or stove, tile floors, build a workshop, install a sprinkler system, put up Christmas lights, build a fence, make a garden, build a child’s playhouse, paint, wallpaper, replace a garbage disposal, or re-wire a lamp. I can do all those things, not because I am great, but because I do things myself, learned much from my dad and much from just saying “I’ll do it”. Many guys my age even can’t, much less younger. But they sure know to play Angry Birds on their Ipods and update their Facebook page during Thanksgiving dinner.

I wrench for a living . Almost 20 years now . You can’t find help anymore . Kids have no clue . I cut my teeth on a family farm . We fixed it or else .We have kids with degrees from tech schools that apply at my shop that don’t know a spark plug from a water pump ! The school system has failed ! I don’t adjust timing or set dwell much any more , most work involves fuel trim and missfire codes .Auto’s are much more advanced than my 53 Pont. or 78 F100 .Still with these advances we have problems attracting people that can find their arse with both hands !

When Steve Jobs passed away, I was struck by the young people who called him the John Lennon of their generation. If this coming generation worships inventors and industrialists, maybe it’s a little premature to write them off.

I don”t know about the country as a whole, but here in Ohio we have a thing called “Vocational School” that is availabbe to all high school students in grades 11 & 12. They can take classes in all areas of automotive repair, sheet metal fab. and welding, and body work, and many other real world occupations. Depending on the course,time is split between classroom and hands-on shop time. I only assumed that this type of teaching is available nationwide. If not, it should be.

I completely agree with the premise. We’re too dependent on technology of all forms to be treating it as black magic, like so many seem to do. However, there are a couple of things out there that do give me hope.
One of these is the rise of “hackerspaces”. These are communal workshops where people can get together to make stuff. This seems like an especially useful thing for apartment or condo dwellers who just don’t have the option of a workshop of their own.
The other is events like Burning Man, where people build kinetic sculptures just so they can show them off. Even if you don’t see the point of it, it still requires a sizable amount of technical skill to pull it off, including a lot of traditional shop skills. The important thing here is that there are young people out there who think that making things is really cool, and want to know how to do it.

I know and see what is going on in this hobby. Because I’m a young adult who owns a 67′ ford ranchero which is my primary driver that i take it to car shows in my area. And I also work on my ranchero with the help of a few of my friends if i don’t know repair something.The other thing people in my age group don’t know how rewarding how this hobby can be in different ways you learn how to budget money for a modification or a paint job etc which you can be useful in life But in the meantime I just enjoy this time while it lasts.

[…] few decades by diverting resources from vocational programs to focus solely on academics. Author Matthew Crawford made many of those points and more in his 2009 book, Shop Class as Soulcraft, claiming that the […]